OSCAR nominated director Paul Greengrass returned to his Gravesend this week for a Q and A at the cinema that has been named after him.

The maker of two of the Bourne trilogy, United 93, chatted warmly about his career before a screening of his latest movie Captain Phillips.

Don't worry if you missed him, here are some of the highlights...

He was kicked out of school

The 58-year-old, who was raised in Gravesend and went to Westcourt Primary School before getting ‘kicked out’ of Gravesend Grammar, said it was “a great honour” to have the cinema named after him.

It confused his dad, though.

Paul said: “When I told my dad, he said ‘That’s ridiculous. Why are they naming it after you? You got kicked out of school’.”

He still remembers making his first film as a teenager at school

“I remember it being more exciting than football - and I like my football, believe me – and it was more exciting than girls.

“You’re in a frenzy but also you have got an inner peace. When you are nervous and unsure in life, that is what gave me a way to go. Something to hang onto.”

But the results didn’t match the passion on this occasion.

He said: “I found a piece of it about three or four years ago in an old box. And it was total s***. I thought ‘Oh my god, I’ve found the lost Rembrandt’. No.”

If he could have made any movie...

“I would like to have made Lawrence of Arabia.

“It is one of the great, great films of all time. Just the sense of spectacle, the complexity of it, the emotionality of t and the way it gets to the complexity of humanity.

“It is absolutely a masterpiece.”
Damon got physical

“Making The Bourne Supremacy, there’s a scene where Jason Bourne is in a small room in the airport in Naples and a guy came in to interrogate him...you see Bourne get up and absolutely lam this guy.”

“We rehearsed it a lot because it was a very particular Jiu Jitsu style move.

“The first take was a loosener.

“The second take - ‘BANG’ – he hit him right on the bridge of the nose and laid him out flat. He was out cold.

“When the guy came round, the first thing he said was ‘did you get it?’.”

United 93 was written, filmed and released in less than a year

“I started writing on the afternoon on 7/7.

“I wrote it in three weeks, we started shooting in October and shot until Christmas. It came out in April.

“That was the quickest I have ever made a movie.”

Losing at the Oscars put him in good company

“I have never won. I’ve been the bridesmaid a few times.

“I remember one of the times when I lost I was in the category with Clint Eastwood, who also lost. As we stood up to walk away, he goosed me and said ‘It’s s***, isn’t it, losing.’

“I thought, ‘It’s Clint who just did that’.”